Chapter 15
Anna Carter
I reached the building.
I threw myself at the wall, slamming my hand over the smooth surface, willing a maintenance panel to appear.
I screamed at it, cried, tears staining my cheeks.
Then there was a beep, and the door opened several meters to my left.
I flung herself toward it. In the distance, I caught sight of Mark.
He was limping as if his leg was broken, but he was in better shape than the ship.
It had crash landed a good 200 meters away.
Oh god.
Mark moved toward me, dragging his leg, his expression locked with hatred.
I threw myself through the door and into the building.
I ran, as fast as my limbs could carry me.
In the distance, I heard Mark enter the building behind me, one foot dragging.
My breath came in strangled gasps as I twisted over my shoulder to see him, the underside of his face lit up by the glowing barrel.
I let out a scream as I twisted my head around.
Oh god.
“Annie, get back here,” Mark growled.
I slammed a hand over my mouth and whimpered.
I threw myself through the corridors of the building. The further I went, the narrower the hall became, until I was running over cables chunked and strewn along the floor like intertwined roots.
I had to be careful – so careful – not to trip.
I was faster than Mark, but just by a few steps. I could still hear him dragging his foot down the corridor behind me. Despite the fact metal-covered bones were protruding from his leg, he was still fast enough to keep up.
What was he?
And why was he after me?
I had no idea where I was going.
… Or did I?
I seemed to know which corners to take.
….
It was returning.
The pain behind my left eye – slowly, slowly it was returning.
I started to see shadows dance over my vision. They were diffuse, but they still had the power to influence me.
It may not be enough to see me hack into a sophisticated computer, but it was enough to direct me.
After I had taken a sharp corner, I reached an enormous door.
Far down the corridor, I heard Mark chuckle. “You’re trapped now, kid; give up.”
I pressed my back against the door, eyes drawing wide.
I saw him round the corner.
He smiled. It wasn’t warm, it wasn’t charming, and it wasn’t technically a smile.
It was cold and triumphant.
Before I knew what I was doing, my hand darted up and typed something into the panel by the door.
The door opened, and I staggered back.
Mark spluttered in surprise. “What the hell?”
I fell through the door, falling onto the ground.
I scuttled backward, turning on my hands and pushing to my feet.
I was outside, the wind whistling past like a howling wolf.
I stared up to see the base of an enormous satellite dish.
I’d made my way into the internal compound.
“Annie!” Mark snapped. “How the hell did you get through this door?” His head suddenly ticked to the side. “I guess you need more medication,” he said, his lips curling with recognition.
I staggered away from him, the wind blasting against my legs and back, sending the flaps of my tunic slapping around my arms.
Medication?
Mark twisted his arm around his back and grabbed something.
It was a vial of thick red liquid lodged into some kind of device.
He pressed a button on the top, and with a hiss, the liquid disappeared.
I lost my balance. I stumbled to the side, tripping, but pushing off the ground with my hand and staggering back into a desperate run.
The pain was gone. Oh god, my left eye felt completely normal.
It wasn’t a blessing, I suddenly realized.
The visions were protecting me, but now they’d stopped.
Whatever that red liquid was, it had stripped me of the hallucinations.
I didn’t stop running, though.
I sprinted around the base of the enormous satellite.
It took several minutes of heart-pounding running.
I was flagging. Mark wasn’t. He hadn’t reached me yet, and he was still dragging his leg, but he hadn’t dropped behind either.
Tears streaked down my cheeks. Without the visions to protect me and with the ship gone, I was alone.
I started to sob as I ran.
“Be a good girl and give up, Annie. No more tears, I promise.”
I whimpered at his words.
I wasn’t used to running this much, and I’d already been tired from my ordeal on Cluster.
A painful stitch dug into my ribs, like a knife thrust through the flesh. I now wheezed with every step.
I heard Mark chuckle from behind me.
As I rounded the base of the satellite, I saw a thin, tall tower.
I threw myself toward it.
When I neared, I saw a lift at the base.
With nothing else to head to, I threw myself at it.
I had no idea how to operate the controls, but as I flung myself at it and tumbled into the base of the open lift, a shield formed behind me. Without a word or a command, the lift started to move up.
Before it did, I heard Mark utter, “Christ you’re stupid. Now you’re trapped, little Annie.”
A second later, the lift blasted up. I saw the world outside flit past in a few seconds.
With a jolt, I reached the top of the tower.
The shield over the door flickered out.
I considered sitting there with my back pressed into the wall behind me, but I realized that was suicide.
Mark would find some way of calling the lift down to him, then he’d pluck me right out.
I threw myself forward, shoes scrabbling against the smooth metal of the floor.
I reached a long thin exposed platform. There was a thin railing on both sides, but apart from that, no protection.
The wind beat me like thousands of hands.
I staggered back, lurching to the side and grabbing hold of the closest railing. My cold fingers latched around it.
There was a beep from behind me, and the lift shot down the tower.
Oh god.
Mark was coming.
I turned and hurled myself forward, fighting the wind with every step.
I had no idea what this tower did, but there was one thing I could figure out: it led to nowhere. The thin metal gangway I now flung myself along would end in 20 meters or less.
There was another beep from behind me.
Mark had arrived.
“Annie,” he called out with a blasting voice that reminded me of the powerful shots from his gun. “There’s nowhere to run, Annie.”
I didn’t stop running, not until I reached the end.
Then, I had to stop.
There was no railing over the end. Just a drop. A long one.
I shunted my feet into the metal grating, lurching to the side and grabbing onto the railing. As the wind thrashed me, it caught my hair and sent it whipping against my face.
“Oh, Annie.” Mark slowed.
I locked a hand onto the railing as my terror-filled gaze locked on him. “Why are you doing this?” I could barely speak as the wind roared around us.
He kept walking confidently toward me. Not running now. What was the point?
Unlike me, he wasn’t affected by the wind. He didn’t have to latch a hand onto the railing to steady himself; he simply walked forward with poise and ease. He was still dragging his leg, but he wouldn’t have to run to reach me now.
There was a cold hardened edge to his gaze that told me nothing could affect him right now.
I shuddered back from that look in his eyes.
“Be a goo
d girl, Annie,” he warned, “and don’t get too close to the edge there.” The wind rustled his short hair, pulling and tugging at his open jacket, the fabric slapping against his tense arms.
I convulsed with fear, momentarily losing my grip on the railing and teetering close to the drop behind me.
He paused. “Don’t go and do anything stupid, honey.”
“D-don’t call me that. A-and what are you doing?”
He smiled, the move callous. He’d lost the sparkle in his eye and that warmth to his expression.
He looked as cold and dead as the depths of space.
“I’m going to take you someplace safe.”
I shook my head, my hair like wire as it sliced against my face, the wind whipping it into my shoulders and chest. “Mark, just… just don’t do this. Whatever you’re planning, please, just let me go.”
“Let you go, Annie Carter? Why would I do that? You hold the fate of the universe in your hands. And someone wants to wrest it from your grip.”
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